34km: 3 weeks to TMM

This is the best Sunday to be running in Bombay. Everyone is out on the road doing their longest run on the actual route. It was comforting to see the familiar faces and very encouraging to see so many new faces. As we passed the same people twice- once at the Dadar/Mahim end and the other somewhere along Marine Drive, we acknowledged that we are all running a similar distance. Enthusiastic shouts, energetic high fives, cheeky comments, banal banter, witty wisecracks and of course, shining smiles fill the air. The atmosphere was festive. 

I did a full dress rehearsal for raceday- replete with nutrition and a late start to get a feel of the brutal sun in the last hour for the final kilometres of the race. 

Mihir joined us at the 10^th km and stayed with us until 25km – the slog (boring) kilometres. Parin joined us later after some confusion (basically due to a miscalculation of time and distance on my part!) and ran the remaining 5 easy kilometres, to Gateway of India and back. The weather was cool, conversation flowing and the pace felt comfortable. We were in good rhythm. 

From Churchgate it was only Vishal and me, to begin our final test- the last 4 km at marathon pace. We picked up, gradually. The pace was brisk, our mood – grim. We ran in deathly silence, both of us battling our own demons on the inside, and each other on the outside. Just as I would go ahead of Vishal by a few metres, he would catch up, and when he passed me- I ensured – with a few quick steps (or did he slow down?) that we were shoulder to shoulder again. Ignoring all the other metrics, we were focussed only on the distance. 

I gestured, 2-to-go. 

During these 21.50 minutes, I remembered the previous 34km (2 weeks ago). The challenging distance. The route, the people, the fuelling. Everything was the same. And yet, it wasn’t. And then had a flashback of the previous 3 hours.

It was a brand new day. My mind – with its own mind with its new wiles on a new day. 

The transient knee pain that popped up at Worli – but thankfully dissolved somewhere in the chatter, the annoying left glute niggle that poked fun at me – but then whimpered away, and the exaggerated fatigue at km 27. 

1-to-go. I wanted to stop and cry!

During that final easy 30^th Km, I said to Vishal – “Let’s slow down a bit, before the fast finish. I want to lower my heart rate.” I actually wanted to stop and rest. Take a break. For the first time this season, instead of giving in to my weakness, I tricked my mind, held my resolve and continued running.  I don’t think we slowed down much, but these 6 minutes allowed me to gather my mind and find my focus for the oncoming onslaught, I felt comforted. 

Vishal and I completed the last run of this training block- together, for the first time. In fact, today, we stopped only for water only once, for about a minute. Most of the distance was run NONSTOP – my word for this year.  More than the pace, it is the way a run feels, that constitutes a “good run or a good workout”. I finally ran nonstop! Yay!

I hit the stop button on my Garmin at exactly 34.0. Not an inch more. After a poorly coordinated, wordless hi-five acknowledging the effort, truth emerged. 

He says, “I was hanging for my dear life”. HAHAHAH. 

And here I was, thinking that only I was dying and he was cruising. 

Both of us cursed each other, as we sat down, perched on the side of the road on the ledge of a shop on Babulnath (next to Dave Farsan- that sells the world-famous samosas!), whilst we sipped water that we had bought from the shop. Oh yes, and colddelicioussweetandsmooth- Jeera Soda. 

Clumsily we clambered into a cab – incapable and unwilling to walk even 10 steps more. Haha. It was a comical scene. A jumble of emotions. Pain. Relief. Friendship. Anger. Rivalry. Strength. 

This is why we run- for shared suffering and shared joy. 

Marathon training is about the process, the tangibles.  

Raceday is about destiny.